Rafael Nadal sees off injured Adrian Mannarino after epic first set tie-break to reach Australian Open quarter-finals

Rafael Nadal is into the Australian Open quarter-finals for the 14th time in his career after beating Adrian Mannarino 7-6(14) 6-2 6-2. Nadal was able to overcome Mannarino in an epic tie-break during a 81 minute first set, saving four set points to take it 16-14 which sparked wild celebrations from the Spaniard and the boisterous crowd inside Rod Laver Arena. Ad/> «The first set was very emotional,» Nadal said after the match.

Australian Open‘We have to do better’ – Medvedev on the change that made him a ‘genius’19 HOURS AGO «Anything could have happened. I got a little bit lucky in the end. I had my chances but then he had lots of chances too.

Everybody knows how mental this game is. After that crazy first set the break at the beginning of the second was so important. »He had been playing some fantastic tennis throughout the whole tournament, winning against amazing players like Aslan Karatsev and Hurbert Hurkacz.

Today the first set was super difficult. His ball was difficult to control — very flat and fast — and I'm very happy that I survived that first set without a doubt." Mannarino, who played a four hour and 39 minute epic against Russia's Aslan Karatsev in the third round, caused Nadal lots of problems with his serve, but he struggled physically after the mammoth opener and Nadal was able to race through the remaining two sets. The Frenchman, who was moving gingerly around the court, was broken in the first and fifth games of the second set before calling on the medic at 5-2 down.

He carried on but Nadal served out the set with ease to take a two set lead after two hours of action. There were three breaks of serve shared between Mannarino and Nadal in the opening games of the third set. It was the 2009